


mostly friends

by Trillian_Astra



Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: (at least Raffi thinks it's one-sided), F/M, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, incipient friends to lovers, oblique references to masturbation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23147119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trillian_Astra/pseuds/Trillian_Astra
Summary: Raffi tries to avoid being alone with her thoughts and, well, the ENH happened to be there.Some of those thoughts might be connected to how she feels about Rios.
Relationships: Raffi Musiker & Cristóbal Rios, Raffi Musiker/Cristóbal Rios
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	mostly friends

It’s the accent, Raffi thinks to herself as she listens to the ENH chat away about astronavigation and systems with multiple stars. He – Enoch, apparently, though god knows where Rios got that name from - is rapidly becoming her favourite of the Sirena’s holographic crew. 

Partly because he always seems to be the most optimistic and up-beat, so different from the actual Rios these days.

But partly because of the accent. She can close her eyes and listen to that gentle Irish lilt and pretend that it’s someone else talking, not yet another hologram with her friend’s face.

Not that Rios’ face is bad in any way. Cris is a friend, mostly. A drinking buddy, before she got clean. A crewmate more than once. Falling into bed together is about the only thing they haven’t done.

Enoch, though. 

There have been moments (late at night when the Sirena is quiet and Raffi can’t get to sleep) when that accent and the thought of a gentle but confident touch are the only things that reliably help her to relax.

She always imagines a different face, though.

~

“Excuse me?”

Raffi straightens up in her chair to see the ENH looking at her. “Um, yes?”

“Is there anything else? The course is all laid in.”

“No, uh, I think that’s all. Thanks.”

He stands up from the navigator’s chair and takes a few steps away from it, a move that brings him closer to her own chair. 

Raffi realises that he’s waiting for her to do something.

“Are you all right?” he says softly.

“I- yes. Just have a lot on my mind.”

“I’m only a navigational hologram but… is there any way I can help?”

She looks up at him, small smile on his lips, and part of her remembers that what she’s looking at is just a projection of the ship, a program. What she says, however, is this.

“Can you just… talk to me? About anything. Read me a navigation log , I don’t care what it is, just keep talking.”

He – it? No, dammit, He – reaches out and touches her shoulder gently. “Of course,” he says, and he starts reading out what sounds like a Starfleet training manual.

~

“Raffi?”

She spins around in her chair to see Cris – the actual Cris – standing there holding a book. “Yeah?”

“You OK?”

“Yeah….”

“Is there a reason my ENH is reading you… wait, is that the navigation 101 training manual?”

“Oh. Um, I asked him to. Didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts. Uh, deactivate ENH.”

As Enoch vanishes with a nod, Cris sits down and spins his chair to face her. “You know I’m here if you want company, right?”

“I thought it was my job to say that. Anyway,” she says with an awkward smile, “you’ve got your own shit going on.”

“Fair,” he says, getting up and moving to crouch in front of her. “OK, new plan. I’ll be sitting over there reading. If anyone should happen to need some quiet company, that person is welcome to hang around here, though they may have to put up with me reading out loud. Hopefully that won’t be annoying for them.”

“Thank you,” Raffi says, and means it.

“Hey, come on,” he reaches out and gently takes her hand. “It’s the least I can do.” He presses a soft kiss to the back of her hand, then goes back to the captain’s chair and picks up his book.

~

The next time Raffi finds herself unable to sleep, it’s a familiar face that she thinks of, and the accent that goes with it isn’t Irish.


End file.
